Evgeny Morozov gave an interesting TED talk “How the Net Aids Dictatorships” [4]. I don’t agree with his conclusion, he has some evidence to support his claims but I think that a large part of that is due to people not using the Internet well. I expect things to improve. The one claim that was particularly weak was when he mentioned radio stations in Rwanda as an example of technology being used for bad purposes – the entire point about the first-world discussion about such things is the radio vs the Internet.

Ray Anderson gave an inspiring talk about “The Business Logic of Sustainability” [5]. He transformed his carpet company, decreasing it’s environmental impact by 82% and it’s impact per volume of product by more than 90% while also significantly increasing it’s profitability. He says that corporate managers who don’t protect the environment should be regarded as criminals. Making his company more environmentally friendly reduced expenses (through efficiency), attracted more skillful employees, and attracted environmentally aware customers. Managers who don’t follow Ray’s example are not only doing the wrong thing for the environment, they are doing the wrong thing for their stockholders! Ray’s company Flor takes carpet orders over the web [6]. They won’t ship a catalogue outside the US, so presumably they only sell carpet to the US too.

2 comments to Links November 2009

Anon wrote:
Using a live CD for banking could prove dangerous, though, if not kept up to date. People might have a tendency to burn a live CD once and never update it, which would leave them vulnerable to browser security holes or similar.